Our complaints performance
Every year we publish a Complaints Report, where we look at the number of complaints we received across the year (from October to September), why we received them, and what we can do to improve our performance. You can read our full report in the link on this page.
Our quarterly results
Our annual complaints give you the best overall indicator of our complaints performance, but you can see how many complaints we received and resolved each quarter in the table below too.
(Q1 = January to March, Q2 = April to June, Q3 = July to September, Q4 = October to December)
| Period | Complaints received | Received per 100K accounts | Complaints resolved | Resolved per 100K accounts | Resolved same or next working day | Resolved within 8 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2020 | 1651 | 1138 | 1411 | 973 | 17% | 93% |
| Q2 2020 | 1849 | 1237 | 1658 | 1109 | 23% | 99% |
| Q1 2020 | 2089 | 1328 | 1940 | 1233 | 33% | 99% |
| Q4 2019 | 1349 | 856 | 1333 | 856 | 47% | 97% |
| Q3 2019 | 1269 | 786 | 1222 | 757 | 52% | 98% |
| Q2 2019 | 1271 | 771 | 1248 | 757 | 55% | 99% |
| Q1 2019 | 1428 | 867 | 1428 | 867 | 56% | 96% |
| Q4 2018 | 900 | 461 | 863 | 442 | 56% | 95% |
| Q3 2018 | 664 | 391 | 739 | 436 | 49% | 92% |
| Q2 2018 | 698 | 418 | 726 | 434 | 50% | 92% |
| Q1 2018 | 809 | 468 | 732 | 423 | 58% | 97% |
| Q4 2017 | 908 | 527 | 933 | 542 | 53% | 98.75% |
| Q3 2017 | 734 | 387 | 638 | 336 | 51% | 86.92% |
| Q2 2017 | 577 | 297 | 597 | 308 | 75% | 95.15% |
| Q1 2017 | 589 | 323 | 595 | 327 | 68% | 97.28% |
| Q4 2016 | 512 | 297 | 534 | 310 | 60% | 96.48% |
| Q3 2016 | 633 | 374 | 621 | 367 | 43% | 94.31% |
| Q2 2016 | 499 | 302 | 466 | 282 | 47% | 95% |
| Q1 2016 | 509 | 313 | 528 | 325 | 68% | 100% |
| Q4 2015 | 433 | 273 | 428 | 273 | 85% | 100% |
| Q3 2015 | 420 | 286 | 417 | 286 | 84% | 100% |
| Q2 2015 | 705 | 472 | 705 | 472 | 84% | 100% |
| Q1 2015 | 813 | 582 | 813 | 582 | 85% | 100% |
| Q4 2014 | 566 | 418 | 566 | 418 | 81% | 100% |
| Q3 2014 | 493 | 399 | 493 | 399 | 92% | 100% |
Top reasons for complaints
We also categorise all of the complaints we receive so we can see exactly where we need to improve to make our customer service even better. Here are the main reasons our customers have complained, as a percentage of the total complaints we received.
| Reason | Q3 2020 | Q2 2020 | Q1 2020 | Q4 2019 | Q3 2019 | Q2 2019 | Q1 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | 49% | 57 | 58% | 41% | 41% | 41% | 39% |
| Customer service | 26% | 26 | 26% | 31% | 30% | 30% | 22% |
| Credit Management | 5% | 6 | 3% | 5% | 7% | 6% | 6% |
| Payments | 7% | 5 | 4% | 5% | 5% | 8% | 7% |
| Prepayment/PAYG | 6% | 4 | 8% | 12% | 10% | 8% | 12% |
| Metering | 9% | 5 | 6% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 17% |
| Customer set up | 1% | 2 | 0.2% | 0.4% | 2% | 2% | 2% |
| Comms/Correspondence | 0.5% | 4 | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0% | 1% | 1% |
| Transfers | 2% | 2 | 2% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 6% |
| Reason | Q4 2018 | Q3 2018 | Q2 2018 | Q1 2018 | Q4 2017 | Q3 2017 | Q2 2017 | Q1 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | 37% | 42% | 44% | 49% | 39% | 38% | 28% | 34% |
| Customer service | 18% | 16% | 11% | 12% | 10% | 10% | 7% | 8% |
| Credit Management | 6% | 9% | 4% | 3% | 3% | 6% | 9% | 7% |
| Payments | 7% | 6% | 6% | 4% | 7% | 6% | 8% | 7% |
| Prepayment/PAYG | 15% | 10% | 3% | 2% | 3% | 2% | 3% | 7% |
| Metering | 20% | 14% | 14% | 14% | 20% | 22% | 27% | 20% |
| Customer set up | 2% | 2% | 7% | 7% | 8% | 5% | 8% | 10% |
| Comms/Correspondence | 1% | 1% | 8% | 7% | 9% | 7% | 7% | 5% |
| Transfers | 7% | 6% | 3% | 1% | 2% | 4% | 3% | 2% |
Billing: Including challenges to bill amounts, understanding information on bills, and queries relating to tariffs
Customer Service: Feedback about the information we provide or the actions we take when our customers call us, write to us or send us an email
Credit Management: Relating to overdue bills and payment plans
Payments: Covering payments, refunds and Direct Debits
Prepayment/Pay As You Go: all queries relating to installing or running prepayment meters, including voluntary or forced installation, debt, top up cards and keys etc
Metering: all issues relating to meters, such as appointments, loss of supply, meter exchanges, cost of meter tests etc
Customer set up: Regarding new customer details, including sign up information and meter details
Communications/Correspondence: This includes issues around any marketing material, and any communications to customers either written or verbal
Transfers: Relating to home moves, for both customer leaving us and new customers moving into a property we supply.
What we’re doing to improve our service
We know that it is not possible to get everything right all the time – mistakes will happen, it’s what you do about them that matter more. Complaints are the ultimate expression of the mistakes we make, we analyse them, act on them and learn from them.
Ecotricity have been around for a while – we are the oldest independent energy company in the UK, and will be celebrating our 25th birthday in 2020. About a year ago, we began work on some fundamental upgrades to all our core systems – everything from our telephony, to our billing engine, to our finance and HR systems. We call it the ‘Reboot’ programme and it will bring a significant step change to how we’re able to interact with and serve our customers.
We’re close to completion of this work now and the next few months will see it fully come to fruition. You can view or download a PDF copy of our 2020 report below.
You can find out more about our complaints procedure. If you require a hard copy of our code of practice, please call us on 0345 555 7 100.
And check out our previous complaint reports for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018:
Annual complaints reports
Ecotricity Complaints Report 2019 (PDF, 75.4 Kb)- Ecotricity Complaints Report 2018 (PDF, 117.7 Kb)
- Ecotricity Complaints Report 2017 (PDF, 105.6 Kb)
- Ecotricity Complaints Report 2016 (PDF, 565.3 Kb)
- Ecotricity Complaints Report 2015 (PDF, 273.6 Kb)
- Ecotricity Complaints Report 2014 (PDF, 213.0 Kb)
- Ecotricity Complaints Report 2013 (PDF, 127.1 Kb)
- Ecotricity Complaints Report 2012 (PDF, 474.3 Kb)